Here are some notes to remind me of what to do the next time.
- Find the original uncompressed file you want to edit.
- Let’s say this file is ‘1994 summer’ from the Cantin Home Movie collection.
- Go into your hard drive and within the 1994 folder create a folder called ‘1994 Uncompressed video files from Cantin Home Movies’
- In this folder, we will create a Final Cut library file.
- Open Final Cut and click New -> Library.
- Save it in the folder you created a few steps before. Generally I stick with calling the Library the same name as the video file that I found so in this case I would call it 1994 summer.
- Next, we will create an event. Click New->Event. I generally call the event the same as the tape name. I also check the box for ‘create new project’.
- You will see that whatever you called it (example: 1994 summer) will show up in the library. I generally rename it to Footage so it looks like this:
9. Next up, let’s drag and drop some footage into the Footage folder. Go back to the original 1994 summer tape footage within Finder and drag it here.
10. It will copy the file into the library. Once it’s fully copied over, you can delete the original file.
11. Drag the footage onto timeline.
Not the greatest screenshot but it shows that you dragged it onto the timeline and also I used the blade tool (click B on the keyboard) and sliced some footage up.
12. Use the blade tool and slice up the clips you want. The first one is easy. The next ones are a bit more tricky. You have to remember to zoom in and make sure that the beginning and the end are what you want in your clip. I’ve found sometimes I get a second of another clip on either end sometimes and have to redo it. ALSO, you need to move the playhead to the beginning of the clip or sometimes it will export the entire file.
13. Now you want to share it and create a compressed version. The trick here is that if you don’t select the actual clip in the timeline beforehand, it will process the entire file. But it’s not as simple as just clicking and highlighting the clip you want. You need to highlight it and then press x on the keyboard. I can’t remember what this actually does…I think it selects the in and out points of the clip you selected. Now you can compress it.
14. Click File -> Share -> HEVC.
15. The name of the file should be very specific to what you want that particular clip to be. If possible, use a file name like “1994-07-03 Perce Rock”. I never bother changing the description, name, tags, etc. Maybe I should?
16. Here are the settings I’ve played around with. Format: Computer tends to not compress it as much compared to something for an iphone.
Video codec: HEVC 10-bit seems to work great. I tried something with HDR before and it didn’t really work on old footage.
Action: Save Only prevents it from opening up the file to play back afterwards. I found that annoying.
You can also scrub the preview to see if you missed some ins and outs.
16a. Check the exported file for in and out points. Make sure no other clips appear at the ends.
17. Save it on your hard drive with a very specific folder like “1994-08-xx Party Filles”. Name the file the same.
That’s it! I generally put it on Google Photos after this process as well and add it to a family album. Don’t forget to change the date after uploading to Google Photos!
Speaking of Google Photos, I was uploading videos once and it took six hours. I think I figured out that it was an uncompressed video file. Maybe Google Photos tries to compress it at the same time? regardless, try and compress your files before uploading. It takes a minute instead of hours.